Beyond the ordinary

Old Engineering Studies 

Opticks by Isaac Newton 

In this article, Karel Hujer reviews multiple books with one of them being Opticks by Isaac Newton. The article talks about the structure and contents of the book and dives into Newton’s experiments on light, color, reflection, refraction, and diffraction. It explain how Newton used scientific methods to test hypotheses and create theories such as the corpuscular theory of light. Karel also notes how Newton’s ideas in this text connect to later ideas such as wave theory. On top of this, Karel expands on how Newton’s work in this work reflected his broader beliefs about nature. The last important thing to note about this article is that it references Einstein’s foreword which talks highly about Newton’s experiment skills, theoretical insight, and artistic clarity. While Hujer does provide a valuable insight on Isaac Newton’s Opticks it undermines how valuable this book was in the history of science. Hujer treats it as just another book in the long history of science and does not spend enough time talking about how Opticks in a way is the framework for modern day optics.

Mathematical Magic





John Wilkin’s Mathematical Magick is one of the earliest studies of mechanics and motion. This book was written by a clergyman, natural philosopher, and a founding member of the Royal Society. It blends speculative thought with practical science and offers some of the earliest mechanical principles, mainly through illustrations. This artifact in split into two books, one focusing on simple machines and the other focusing on more fantastical devices. This artifact covers a variety of mechanisms such as levers  pulleys, flying machines, automata, and proposals for human flights. This book represents the times' growing enthusiasm for experimentation, technological innovation, and math. Wilkins talks about how machinery is not a form of magic but instead is more rational. He talks about how understanding mechanisms can extend human capabilities and reveal the nature of the world. His ideas represent the times shift from medieval models of natural philosophy to a more empirical view. For us today, this artifact stands a milestone of science and a view of early curiosity.

Principia Mathematica

Isaac Newton, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1713) (2nd edition), London Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, by the famous physicist, Sir Isaac Newton, is widely considered one of the most influential scientific works ever published. This artifact builds upon ideas introduced in the late seventeenth century. This artifact is the origin of the some of the most well known scientific laws such as the laws of motion and Newton’s famous law of gravity. Newton describes these laws in a mathematical way, which helped transform natural philosophy into a discipline grounded in quantifiable principles. Out of
everything Newton writes about in this book, by far the most substantial is the idea that the same force that causes objects to fall shapes the motion of planets and tides, suggesting that terrestrial and celestial mechanics have a common system. The second edition of this book is extremely significant due to its revisions and clarification on things that critics criticized about the first edition. He also included more detailed proofs. The second edition had Newton’s ideas bolstered by his companion Roger Cotes, which further strengthened Newton’s reputation across Europe. This artifact came about at the height of the Enlightenment and symbolizes the era’s newfound confidence in math, reason, and empirical inquiry. It reformed scientific thought, influenced countless numbers of areas of study, and laid the foundation for modern physics. This artifact is more than a book, it is a landmark of human achievement and foundation in the history of science.